This invention relates to capsular heat-radiating bases for stainless steel cooking utensils, i.e. those bases consisting of the stainless steel base wall of the actual utensil plus a plate of good thermal conductivity metal and a stainless steel layer completely covering this plate, the entire assembly forming one piece with the utensil. The covering for the plate of good conductivity is therefore in the shape of a cup, the lateral wall of which covers and delimits the lateral edge of the plate.
It can be very useful, not only in the case of cooking utensils used industrially but also for normal domestic cooking utensils, to be able to immediately identify at a glance the origin of and the intended use for a certain utensil, especially when obligatory (as required for industrial purposes) or advisable to always use a particular utensil for the same function.
If the various utensils to be used for different purposes have the same shape and size, it becomes very difficult to quickly and reliably identify a particular utensil. It would therefore be very useful to be able to differentiate between the various utensils so that they are immediately identifiable. The requirement of immediately identifying a specific utensil also exists where various utensils of identical or similar shape and dimensions but formed from a different type of stainless steel have to be used. This requirement mainly exists industrially, but is also useful for domestic utensils, for example to differentiate with certainty between a utensil heatable by magnetic induction (the base of which is formed totally or partly of magnetizable stainless steel) and a conventional utensil of stainless steel.
Stainless steel cooking utensils sometimes carry writing and/or a symbol impressed on the outer surface of the utensil base, normally in its centre, to indicate its origin and/or use. However in order to see this the utensil has to be raised from the surface on which it rests, so that the identification of a specific utensil is not immediate.
Because of the considerable commercial availability of stainless steel saucepans and the large number of manufacturers, such manufacturers require to characterise their products by visual differences. In this respect, it is important to the manufacturer that his own products are immediately distinguishable from those of the competition without it being necessary to raise the cooking utensil in order to see the manufacturer's name and/or trademark (as stated, usually reproduced in a central position on its base surface). For this purpose the various manufacturers have developed characterisation elements such as the shape of the utensil lateral wall (cylindrical, flared, dished), the shape of the handgrips (side grips, handles, lid knobs) and the lid shape.
However these elements are not always sufficiently identifying from the viewpoint of the final user. Sometimes it is sufficient merely to remove a special-shape lid from a saucepan for this to become anonymous, i.e., without any specific identifying element. The same can happen if the saucepan is seen from a certain angle which does not show, for example, the particular shape of the handles. Again, if for any reason the handles and knobs are replaced, and these were the only characterising elements, the utensil loses its distinctive characteristics.